2nd Call for Papers "Numbers and Truth"
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Conference "Numbers and truth - the philosophy and mathematics of
arithmetic and truth"
A Marcus Wallenberg Symposium
Gothenburg, Sweden, October 19-21, 2012
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The conference "Numbers and truth - the philosophy and mathematics of
arithmetic and truth" (http://www.numbersandtruth.org/) will be held
at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, on October 19-21, 2012. Its
main objective is to permit an exchange of ideas between truth
theorists, philosophers and mathematicians interested in the
foundations of mathematics. It will give the researchers an
opportunity both to present technical results and to diagnose their
philosophical significance.
* Conference Description
Natural numbers belong to the most commonly known mathematical
entities and are studied and discussed from various angles.
Philosophers, mathematicians, cognitive scientists, computer
scientists among others conduct research having for its aim a deeper
understanding of these objects. The present conference Numbers and
truth will contribute to these efforts and bring together researchers
and traditions from all these areas to construct common ground for new
research.
Within recent philosophy of mathematics a couple of competitive
philosophical schools came to the foreground; importantly,
structuralism and neo-Fregeanism. Both of them espouse realism about
mathematical objects: these objects exist independently of our minds.
In addition, both espouse realism about truth: arithmetical sentences
have objective truth values. In this context a natural question arises
whether theories of arithmetical truth provide us a better
understanding of what is true of natural numbers, and in consequence,
of what natural numbers are. What is the relation between a choice of
a particular conception of arithmetical truth and one's overall
standpoint in the philosophy of mathematics, or maybe even one's
preferred way of doing mathematics? On a general level, the aim of the
conference is to address issues of this sort. This will be achieved by
bringing together both the acknowledged experts and outstanding
younger researchers, in order to facilitate discussion between
philosophers of mathematics, truth theorists and mathematicians.
The conference will contain 10 invited and 4 contributed talks.
The invited speakers who have confirmed their participation are (in
alphabetic order):
* Martin Fischer (Munich)
* Volker Halbach (Oxford)
* Leon Horsten (Bristol)
* Richard Kaye (Birmingham)
* Juliette Kennedy (Helsinki)
* Roman Kossak (New York)
* Rafal Urbaniak (Gdansk/Ghent)
* Albert Visser (Utrecht)
* Sean Walsh (London/Irvine)
* Konrad Zdanowski (Warsaw)
* Submissions Details
We invite submissions presenting novel contributions to the area of
philosophy of mathematics, arithmetic together with its
meta-mathematics and model theory, and formal theory of truth. Both
philosophical and technical submissions are welcome; especially ones
contributing to the discussion of how truth in mathematics should be
properly explained.
Extended abstracts of 3-4 pages should be emailed as attached pdf
files to the address organizers at numbersandtruth.org . Abstracts for
submission should be prepared for double-blind reviewing, please
remove names and affiliations, and any other identifying material.
Contact details should be given separately. Presentations should not
exceed 45 minutes, including discussion time. The deadline for
submitting extended abstracts is August 1, 2012.
The organizers will cover the cost of accommodation and dinners for
all contributed speakers.
Important Dates:
Submission deadline: August 1, 2012
Notification of acceptance: August 31, 2012
Conference: October 19-21, 2012
Contact: organizers at numbersandtruth.org
Conference Website: http://www.numbersandtruth.org/
Organizers: Fredrik Engström (Gothenburg), Cezary Cieslinski (Warsaw),
and Paula Quinon (Lund)
Sponsors: Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, Marcus Wallenbergs Stiftelse för
Internationellt Vetenskapligt Samarbete, Wenner-Gren Foundations, and
the Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science,
University of Gothenburg.